The invention relates to an apparatus to facilitate removal of stones from a field. In particular, the invention relates to a stone picker adapted for attachment to the side of a modified front-end loader.
To prepare land for agricultural purposes, it is often necessary to remove stones therefrom to allow uniform cultivation of the land. Accordingly, several inventions are known for adapting a tractor or like vehicle for use as a stone picker. A common embodiment of a stone picker for use with a tractor involves substitution of the front-end loader with a tined implement or fork for dislodging stones. In such a design, however, the front end of the tractor obstructs the operator's visibility which renders the operation more difficult. An additional limitation of such a design is that the fork must be emptied after dislodgement of only a few stones.
Another typical design for a stone picker is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,158. This patent discloses an apparatus with a pivoting fork and a stone collecting bin which may be drawn behind a tractor. Designs of this nature lack the manoeuvrability of adaptions to the front-end loader. The efficiency of operation is further reduced since the operator must divide his attention between the trailing rock picker and the forward movement of the towing vehicle.
Jacobs, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,980,189, discloses a rock picker for mounting to the side of a tractor with a rear mounted stone collecting bin. This invention, however, cannot provide the manoeuvrability of the adapted front-end loader design described above. Furthermore, the front wheels of the tractor, being aligned with the stone picker, will hamper operation of the invention by rolling over and further embedding the stones to be removed.
The subject invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art by providing a stone picker adapted for attachment to the side end of a modified front-end loader. This allows for enhanced manoeuvrability without obstruction of the operator's visibility. To further improve the efficiency of the invention, the front-end loader is modified to resemble a collecting bin by attachment thereto of front and side plates.